These pigs were individually decorated by local artists as a fund-raising initiative for the "Two Tunnels" sustainable transport project (www.twotunnels.org.uk /). They were on public display on the streets of Bath for six months in 2008 and were a great tourist attraction. You can see some of the pigs in their original locations by searching on the keyword "Bladud" and some of the snapshots have comments with links to the pig in the snapshot like this: www.gigapan.org/viewGigapan.php?id=6439&snapshot_id=31294.
The original pig was sculpted by Alan Dun: www.alandun.co.uk and www.gigapan.org/viewGigapan.php?id=11385&snapshot_id=31484.
There are over 100 pigs in total. This pano shows most of them. Sadly for the public, the pigs were sold at public auction. Happily for the Two Tunnels project, they raised a great deal of money. At least one pig sold for tens of thousands of pounds.

You now have a reference source that provides at
least one suggestion to create a communal project.
Can you imagine the excitement that your previous
students would enjoy if they were the main
participants in creating a memorable project ...
just think ... for the first time in their lives
they would be proud of what they accomplished. :)
This is just a thought on my part ... nothing
more.

That's an excellent idea and not dissimilar to
one we had for doing something on Great Pultney
Street but it got squashed by the council at the
last minute. The gigapan class is now formally
over but there is some scope for further activity
and any suggestions will be gratefully received.
For those that don't know about the class see
share.gigapan.org/profiles/39861/

Have you perhaps considered what might be a novel
situation for you and your Holborne Museum class?
... to generate some sort of art work, like these
pigs we see in this panorama, that would create
some excitement in Bath, and if I might take a
leap forward by saying this, maybe the generated
excitement may even be greater that what Bath
experienced with the pigs ... just a thought, and
more later :)

Months ago, when you posted this comment,' PIG
ID PUZZLE (Open Research Problem, Experts
Only),' I thought you were speaking of me :)
Sorry for the confusion... of the current 69,659
total views of this magnificant GigaPan, close to
a 1000 are from me :)

The 'Experts' in the 'Experts
Only' of the title of this puzzle was intended
to refer to people who lived and breathed King
Bladud's Pigs during the time of the event.
It's so hard that it is more of an open
research problem than something for which I was
expecting an answer. However, you are definitely
an expert when it comes to finding fine detail in
gigapans David, so your attempt intrigues me.
After due consideration I am awarding you 1.95 out
of 3 - a good score for an open research problem
by a non-Bladudian pig expert. Further comments
under each of your snapshots. The judge's
decision is not final. He is open to rational
debate, reasoned argument and bribes.

I agree about audio. When I was taking share.gigapan.org/viewGigapan.php?i
d=20541 there were African drums playing very
loudly as part of a festival going on outside -
that would have been great to have captured. On
the other hand, do I really want to carry audio
recording gear as well as all the gigapan
paraphernalia? Perhaps there should be a bit of
RAM and a microphone in the GigaPan?

i dont like pigs but this pigs are very sweety :).
i collect this kind of beautyfull panoramas in my
site. you can see this panoramas www.megapanorama.com if you want to embed
panoramas in your site . i can help you .

Hello Tim, Sorry it has taken me a while to notice
your comment. (I have over 200 gigapans ...) It is
indeed great fun, and if you have a brass neck, it
can get you into all sorts of interesting places.
Eg the centre of a ring of 80 decorated brass pigs
being viewed by 300 people - I had no official
status, I simply asked. The H7 has proved to be an
excellent camera. The fact that it is made by Sony
seems to put a lot of people off - but it really
is their loss. Nearly all my gigapans are taken
with the H7. Lately I was given a Canon SD880 to
learn to use for a Gigapan Training workshop (www.gigapan.org/viewGigapan.php?id=
19846) and I have to say that works well. The
single problem with the H7 is that it is too big
to fit on my Gigapan Beta (the same size I believe
as the Epic), but as you can tell this hasn't
stopped me using it: I simply tie the camera on to
the bracket using a compression strap. Gigapan
Systems are sending me an Epic 100 which is
designed for slightly larger cameras (not DSLRs
though) - I can't wait to see how that works
with the H7. One issue with the H7 is that it has
a great optical zoom, but if you use it at its
maximum then you tend to end up with a *lot* of
images. Obvious. What isn't so obvious is you
need some significant computer power to use those
images in a gigapan. I've got a quad-core PC
with 4GB and that is barely enough for my bigger
panos (600 images). And just don't get me
started on how many terabyte drives you get
through! Let me know if you want to know anything
else.

Nice gigapan photo! Can you share details like how
long it took to complete the series of photos?
Your resolution setting? Amount of memory used?
Also I have a DSC-H9. I see you used the H7. Does
it work well for you? Is the H9 also compatible?
Whatever you can share, I would appreciate. It
looks like great fun.

Hi Judy, I think you misunderstood me. I was not
saying you are wrong - I am saying you are quite
right. And not only are there two occurrences of a
man and a woman between pigs 8 and 9 as you
correctly point out, there are in fact many more
examples of this problem throughout the entire
photo. As David says, this kind of problem can be
found in any gigapan image that has anything
moving in the shot such as a boat or a person or
cars.

Judy, During the process of taking a GigaPan, the
camera slowly takes photos from left to right, and
since part of the crowd moves from left to right,
it is the normal to be in the entire panorama
several times. Look at this and tell me how many
boats you see coming into the Harbor: www.gigapan.org/viewGigapan.php?id=
6336&amp;snapshot_id=18882Looks like six,
but it is only one boat.